Netflix Profiles To Stay!

By Ben PopkenJune 30, 2008

Netflix announced today that they will not be removing the beloved profiles function that let users set up separate movie queues. Hooray! Speaking from personal experience, when two people share one netflix account, having two queues is essential to maintaining domestic tranquility. Looks like they listened to the 1270 people who left comments on the blog post announcing the feature’s removal. An email to subscribers also thanked them for the customer emails and calls that advocated for keeping the profiles. The news was released on the Netflix community blog by one of the Netflix website production managers. Full announcement, inside…

For users of Profiles, I have good news to report: we will keep the feature with no plans to discontinue it.

We were persuaded by the well-reasoned, sincere responses of loyal members who very much value this feature. As someone who enjoys helping his four-year-old daughter manage her one-DVD-at-a-time, G-rated sub-account, I identified with these thoughtful pleas to maintain Profiles.

Because of an ongoing desire to make our website easier to use, we believed taking a feature away that is only used by a very small minority would help us improve the site for everyone. Listening to our members, we realized that users of this feature often describe it as an essential part of their Netflix experience. Simplicity is only one virtue and it can certainly be outweighed by utility.

As for improving Profiles, there are no definite plans in place yet, but, like everything at Netflix, we seek to make it better and we are open to suggestions. Non-users of the feature and new members will be able to access Profiles in 2-3 weeks. Existing users will be able to continue their use, uninterrupted.

We apologize for any inconvenience the previous announcement caused.

Enjoy.

-Todd

Emails from Consumerist readers sharing the good news hit our mailbox moments after the news was released. Here’s how some of our readers are reacting:

Rick: “Sounds like Netflix got the message. Personally, I never used profiles, but it’s nice to see that they are willing to say, OK, we made you mad, so we’re going to make things right. I like the tone of this message — not too sappy, silly, or over-apologetic. Most companies insult your intelligence one way or another with their apologies.”

Sonya: “Yay!”

Keith: “Netflix does take us seriously :)”

Di: “I wonder how many people have already sold thier soul to Blockbuster over this. Oh well.”